


bursting through the barricades

by cc tinslebee (Doitlikeagreaser), Doitlikeagreaser



Series: Les Mis Musical AUs [2]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: "I run a factory not a circus", Acrobatics, Adopted Children, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Awesome Cosette, Bossuet's Terrible Luck, Dancing and Singing, Doctor Joly, F/M, Fantine Lives, French Characters, Gen, How about now?, Inspired by The Greatest Showman (2017), Intersex, Jehanparnasse - Freeform, Les Amis de l'ABC - Freeform, M/M, Multi, Non-Binary Jean Prouvaire, Other, POC Grantaire, Parent Valjean, Patron-Minette - Freeform, Period-Typical Homophobia, Period-Typical Racism, Pining Enjolras, Pining Grantaire, Platonic Life Partners, Rich Enjolras, Thank you Mr Hugh Jackman, courferre, enjoltaire - Freeform, epomarisette, jbm - Freeform, poc eponine, the greatest showman au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-04 11:10:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20470046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doitlikeagreaser/pseuds/cc%20tinslebee, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doitlikeagreaser/pseuds/Doitlikeagreaser
Summary: He started out trying to make a life for himself so he could support his best friend. Now, Jean Valjean has set out to create something bigger than himself.





	bursting through the barricades

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own the rights to either of these works. All I've done is the writing.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Feedback is much appreciated!

_“Woah!”_

  
The performers already in the dark ring sang. 

  
_“Woah!”_

  
The circus ring was not yet light; leaving the audience to only see the performers’ silhouettes and leaving the rest to the imagination.

  
_“Woah!”_

  
Though, that appeared to be the point.

  
_“Woah!”_

  
This particular show had offered a different experience to the everyday circus.

  
_“Woah!”_

  
And they had delivered on those expectations.

  
_“Woah!”_

  
The upstanding reviews of citizens who were lucky enough to attend left much to be desired by those who had not had the chance.

  
_“Woah!”_

  
Those fortunate enough to attend this evening would leave awestruck and breathless from the astonishing escape from reality.

  
_“Woah!”_

  
The audience had expected nothing less from the infamous Valjean French Circus.

_  
“Woah!”_

  
The music cut off. Suddenly, the performers in the ring encouraged the audience to stomp their feet. Once, at first, and then after a pause, they stomped two more times.

  
_“Woah!”_

  
Again, they stomped against the wooden seats. The wooden boards of the seats creaked as the second pair of stomps occurred.

  
_“Woah!”_

  
Suddenly, a low voice from behind the seats circling the ring spoke up. 

  
_“Ladies and gents, this is the moment you’ve waited for.”_

_  
“Woah!”_

  
The audience, understanding their roles, stomped once.

  
The voice spoke again, in a way that told a story, rather than sang a song.

  
_“Been searching in the dark, your sweat soaking through the floor.”_

_  
“Woah!”_

_  
Stomp!_

  
_“And buried in your bones, there’s an ache that you can’t ignore. Taking your breath. Stealing your mind. And all that was real is left behind.”_

  
What appeared to be the source of this tale starting circling the back of the seats. The red of his coat, the cane held just underneath his armpit, and the top hat above his head could be seen as a mere silhouette by those who looked hard enough.

  
_“Don’t fight it, it’s coming for you, running at ya,”_ he spoke softly, but clearly._ “It’s only this moment, don’t care what comes after.”_

  
From an opening in the stands, the figure stopped. He pointed his cane precisely towards the right, left, and center where spotlights turned on with a flick of his wrist.

  
_“Your fever dream, can’t you see it getting closer? Just surrender ‘cause you feel the feeling taking over.”_

  
The man lowered his head and tossed his cane up, catching it before sprinting into the ring; the clanking of horses hooves strategically following him.

  
_“It’s fire, it’s freedom, it’s flooding open. It’s a preacher in the pulpit and you’ll find devotion!”_ The man danced towards his fellow performers in the middle of the ring, a blur of red, black, and a tint of gold around his chest._ “There’s something breaking at the brick of every wall; it’s holding all that you know.”_

  
As soon as he reached the center of the ring, four performers suddenly appeared to each have short staff with fire at the tip. The performers lowered their staffs and the ring dimmed to almost complete darkness.

  
_“So tell me, do you wanna go?”_

  
Just like that, the lights had returned in the form of the four performers seemingly breathing out the fire. The audience watched in awe as Jean Valjean revealed himself to the audience fully.

  
The rest of the performers began to sing along with their ringleader.   
_“Where it’s covered in all the colored lights.”_

  
Valjean swiftly moved aside and watched as young man threw daggers precisely towards a quickly rotating target that had another performer on it. The audience gasped as the daggers narrowly missed the spinning person.

  
_“Where the runaways are running the night.”_

  
The ringleader looked towards the audience with an impressive look on his face before darting away and under the legs of a man who appeared to be on stilts.

  
_“Impossible comes true. It’s taking over you.”_

  
Valjean suddenly looked up at a women with dark skin on top of the tall man’s shoulders. She leapt from his shoulders onto a board, which sent a man similar to her up in the air.

  
_“Oh!” _The airborne man sang along with the others, _“This is the greatest show!”_

  
With the point of the ringleader’s cane, a cannon fired, releasing yet another airborne young man.

  
_“We light it up, we won’t come down,” _Valjean pointed his cane towards the audience, and a spotlight stuck that section of seats. _“And the sun can’t stop us now!”_

  
The cane went from pointing towards the audience to being thrown up towards the trapeze artists above. 

_"Watching it come true, it’s taking over you,”_ Valjean sang, once again taking up his solo.

  
_“Oh!”_ the audience shouted, clapping along._ “This is the greatest show!”_

Valjean stood in the center of one of the rings, turning around with his arms spread as his performers danced circles around him. _“It’s everything you ever want. It’s everything you ever need! And it’s here right in front of you. This is where you wanna be!”_

  
A chorus of enthusiastic _“hey!”_s erupted from the audience as the ringmaster sang.

  
A smile spread across Valjean’s face at the familiarity of the audience and the adrenaline of performance. He basked in the spotlight, thrilled at another show._“It’s everything you ever want. It’s everything you ever need! And it’s here right in front of you. This is where you wanna be!”_

  
_“It’s everything you ever want,”_ Valjean sang, but suddenly, the ring was completely empty; any trance of the performers or the audience had vanished. The music was dying down to nothing as well._ "It’s everything you ever need. And it’s here right in front of you. This is where you wanna be.”_

_“It’s everything you ever want. It’s everything you ever need.” _Valjean’s pace slowed down as well and his voice progressively turned into a whisper from the past. _“And it’s here right in front of you...”_


End file.
